AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My top front teeth bite down so hard on my lip, I draw blood. "You said... it like you can just buy me."
His shoulders drop in regret. "Oh, Clarissa. I didn't mean that."
But I don't hear. "Matthias, if I had a choice, I wouldn't do this. But sometimes, to get what we want, we have to do the hard things."
His hand cups my face, and he looks anything but pitying. "Shhh, I know, I know. Do you not know how incredible I think you are for everything you've done since your family did this to you? Do you have any idea?"
I don't believe it. I can't. No good can come of it.
"Clarissa. Look at me. God, look at me." His hand grips my chin and forces me to look at him. "Do you think I would say that to you if I didn't mean it? Me? The person who used to drench you with water balloons? The person who drove my brother to your house to dump you? Do you honestly think this is something I would say if I didn't mean it from the bottom of my heart?"
Stop. I need him to stop.
"Matthias... stop. Please. You don't have to say these things." I don't really feel like being on the end of Matthias's sweet nothings. I've had too much of nothings. I just want to feel something real.
He ignores me. "I think you're fucking amazing for everything you've done. I'm proud of you, Clarissa."
The word, that single word, cuts through all the fog in my brain and flashes like a neon sign,"Proud."
"Matthias..."
Our eyes lock.
And the desperation turns into something dark, liquid. And he leans in and kisses me.
And I don't stop him.
I kiss him back.
Hard, desperately, inexplicably.
I kiss him back, his lips hard, crushing mine.
Until there's no air left in my lungs and I snap out of it. I shove my hands against his chest and he flies backward, the look on his face showing he is as shocked as I am. I gather all the sense I still have in my body and hiss, "Don't you ever fucking do that again."
Chapter 16
Clarissa
"Mr.Baxterishere,Clarissa," Clementine says to me sometime around nine-thirty p.m. while I'm standing by the bar.
"Ugh." The groan slips out of its own accord. "What the hell does he want?"
She shifts uncomfortably. I immediately feel bad for putting her in the middle of a dispute with my... fiancé.That's weird to say.
"Um, I thought you told him to come. He went straight over to your table."
I flick my eyes over to my table and sure enough, he's settling into a seat and gives me a big wave when he sees me looking. What the hell is he holding? It looks like a box of chocolates.
"It's fine. Please, go back to the front, Clementine."
She flees. I need to speak more kindly to my employees. I take a mental note to be better with that. I don't feel the same need for my interactions with my newly betrothed, however.
"Hi honey," he says, flashing me a grin that could probably melt 90% of the women's hearts in Manhattan. Unfortunately for him, my heart has an armor around it and can't be touched by a toothy smile.
"What do you want?" I snap, fully aware that I'm just trying to compensate for the kiss earlier today with abject rudeness. Luckily for me, the elevator had appeared just after I'd pushed him away, and I'd jumped onto it and escaped. I haven't had to see him since.
I've spent the entire day stuck in a loop, replaying the kiss and the moments leading up to it.
